I Know What You Did Last Summer...Part 1

The Zoo!

with all of their maternal cousins

It was almost like we had our own mini daycare!

The kids were constantly trading places between strollers and the wagon and walking so it wasn't always obvious who belonged to who.  I had so much fun watching the faces of strangers who would do a double-take and you could tell they were trying to figure it out.  I think we might have been a little bit of a spectacle!

Depsite the fact that it was CRAZY hot, the day surprisingly went pretty smooth considering we had 8 children under age 8!

Well, pretty easy minus the lunch fiasco!!  Yikes!  1 of the walls in the lunch place is all glass and is like the side of an aquarium complete with live alligators and fish.  Pretty cool...EXCEPT it is just a little out of view from the place where you order which made me very uncomfortable, but there was no keeping the kids away from it.  So, we all order as quickly as possible and try to keep stepping around the corner to keep an eye on the kids...they finally handed us our food and there were NO LIDS on the drinks.  So, all four of us adults now had to push a stroller or wagon to our table (which is not super-close), while holding a tray of food and at least 2 full-to-the-rim drinks.  And we are trying to quickly get out of the way so the next people can order or get to their own trays of food.  Nat quickly asked them to pour out the liquid in the tumblers she brought from home and replaced them with her new drinks.  I put her lidded drinks in the wagon with Chandler and my new unlidded drinks in the cupholders of her stroller.  Problem solved, right???  I thought so until I got to the table and realized that there are these TINY, TINY little holes in the tops of Nat's tumblers.  Chandler had grabbed them and turned them upsidedown in the wagon.  The wagon had a drain hole in it as well and there was a fabulous trail of BRIGHT RED FRUIT PUNCH from the ordering counter all the way to our table...no room for guessing about who had made that mess.  Chandlers feet were soaked, the wagon was soaked...the Buie's drinks were gone and my kids were starving!!  No time right that second to try to clean up the mess.  Complete chaos and for sure, no pictures from our little lunch.  =) 

And the biggest hit of the day???


The DINOSAURS!!

And quite possibly the 2nd biggest hit, Baby Chandler.  The cousins were VERY into her all day long - holding her, petting her, feeding her goldfish and she didn't seem to mind a bit.  Great day and great cousin bonding!

Brooklyn's 1st Mini Dance Recital

Brooklyn did summer school this summer at a dance studio.  In addition to working on shapes, numbers, colors, etc...their curriculum also included tap, jazz, balet and hip-hop.  After their last day of class, they did a quick special performance for the parents.

Brooklyn's grandma, Giegie, got to be in town for this special performance.  When Brooklyn (in black and green) saw us walk in and sit down, she immediately wanted to run to us and the teachers wanted her to stay seated with ALL of the other children.  This caused a melt-down as seen in the picture above.  =)  Note - she was THE ONLY child shedding any tears and her cry could be heard above ALL of the parents chatting as they walked in.  FABULOUS.  (They were able to get her to calm down before the performance.)

Brooklyn LOVED going to "dance school" this summer and talked about dancing all of the time so I couldn't WAIT to see her perform. 
Here it is...her big moment to shine:

(just watched video on blog and you can barely see her...in green and black, back left hand corner...the one sitting on the floor)

Right.  She, and ONLY she, just sat on the floor during the ENTIRE performance.  Well, between the screaming in the beginnging and the sitting through the entire performance...I guess she was able to find her own special way of being in the spotlight. 

That's our girl!

Although her first ever dance performance was a total bust, B made it up to Giegie by having lots of fun with her over the weekend. 

They stacked blocks

Tried out Brooklyn's new Memory game (Thanks, Shaw Family!!)

And, of course, no Giegie visit is complete without a photo session!

Note - The dress B has on in this picture is a dress Eddie's Mom (AKA Giegie) MADE for Eddie's sister, Elisabeth, when she was little.

Brooklyn also went in for a speech therapy evaluation while Giegie was in town.  At Brooklyn's 3-year check-up, the pediatrician had some concerns that her speech may be a little delayed.  After she was tested and received her scores, the speech therapist determined that Brooklyn was "normal" for her age. 

Apparently, she was NOT at Brooklyn's dance recital to see that she is FAR from normal.  =)

Truth be told, I kinda think it is cute that she was too mesmerized by everyone to get up and participate and look forward to telling her all about it one day!  We love you, B!!

11 Months Old!!

Chandler Alexis Nalley @ 11 months

Right now, Chandler acts way older than only 11 months to me.  What happened to my baby????

Newest Tricks:

points remote control towards TV

holds phone to her ear

walks to door and says, "Bye, Bye"

tries to comb her own hair

Brings book to me and sits in my lap for me to read it to her

points to pictures in the book

walks aroud while drinking out of sippy cup (Brooklyn's...not even the baby kind)

helps "clean up"...puts toys in bins

turns on Brooklyn's sound machine

attempts to flush potty (without prompting) after B finishes...she knows that comes next

she helps step out of her bloomers or pants if you take them off while she's standing

Is she smart or what?

Chandler attended her first Rangers Game this month

She did great!  It was close to bedtime, so we put her carrier and she slept thru most of it.

Chandler is very easy-going and content most of the time.

She's been here less than a year, but I CANNOT imagine our family without her!!

Happy 11-month Birthday, Sweet Chandler!!

WE LOVE YOU!!

p.s.  Does my mother-in-law take some great pictures or what?!?

Girls Weekend 2001

Ahhhh....girls weekend!

My weekend with no repsonsibilities or stress in life.  Our annual weekend to just get together, laugh, talk, eat, laugh, relax, catch up, laugh and this year we also got to celebrate the birth of Melanie's sweet new baby, Quinn, and Andrea's recent engagement!!  Congratulations Melanie and Andrea!!  I didn't take any pictures from the weekend because I was completely OFF DUTY!

Off Duty, that is, thanks to the village of people taking care of my children back home!! 

A HUGE thanks to...

EDDIE

MOM

DAD

LAWSON

and BEN (sorry Ben...couldn't find any pics with you in it)

  for taking such great care of the girls so that I could really relax and recharge!!

Now, if you're doing the math, you probably noticed that there were a few more children in the pictures than just my 2.  Mom and Dad were also watching my sister's kids (Lawson and Hudson) while they were out of town and also were up for watching the Wyatt twins for a couple of hours while Ben and Eddie played golf.

That's right.  6 kids and 2 adults.  WOW!  They were really cute about it, though, and just ran it like a preschool.  They had researched crafts and activities that they could do and it looks and sounds like the "Gibbs Pre-school" might have a future in the business world.  =)

A future, that is, if they ever fully recover from that weekend.  =)

 

This was the first time that I've left Chandler overnight, so before I left, I did get to spend one last night of quality time with my girls and my precious neice and nephew.  We had dinner and enjoyed the live music down at the Harbor.

 

It was the perfect "send-off" for a perfect weekend!